The holidays are fast approaching. Whether you’re celebrating Christmas, Kwanzaa, or Hanukkah, or simply looking forward to the end of the year and the beginning of a new one, for many this time of year brings a time of encounters—with others, with themselves, and sometimes even with fundamental questions. Would you rather spend more time with friends and family or a quiet evening? Should I quickly jump into the hustle and bustle and buy gifts?
How do I want to spend my time?
In their daily work, leaders often face similar questions, sometimes with more, sometimes less time to reflect on them and decide what is important to their team and to them in their leadership position.
What values shape my behavior as a manager, what guiding principles do I want to convey in my leadership?
What do my team and I stand for? There is often not much time for this in everyday life. Yet these intrinsic values are incredibly motivating and shape behaviors that are often carried out unconsciously and can only be made conscious with time and space for reflection, for example, through exchange in coaching, in order to then develop their full strength in the work of a manager.
Many of the newly qualified and experienced leaders I work with, some of whom have landed in leadership positions through their professional expertise, can create a sense of orientation for themselves and their team by identifying and developing their guiding values as managers.
These values are enormously helpful, especially during the initial onboarding phase, when so many impressions and requirements are pouring in.
Later on, these values, as well as team values, can also become a useful tool for feedback and measurement for the manager and the team in open communication with the team, providing a basis for exchange and the opportunity for both sides to focus on what matters most.
The first steps in my work as a business coach with leaders often involve identifying which values are crucial for them in leadership. This can, but doesn’t have to, be as easy as one might think if one assumes that people with similar cultural upbringings ‘should’ have similar values.
Generally important terms like fairness and commitment often come up.
Things then get interesting when we work through these topics. What exactly does fairness mean to you, in your context? Do you want to treat all your employees equally, or is it more important to meet everyone’s needs? If you expect commitment, does that mean that all deadlines and deadlines have the same weight? All of these and many other important questions arise and accompany leaders in the coaching process on their path to self-reflection and further development.
I hope that at the end of the year and at the start of the new year you have plenty of time for what is important to you, I wish you all the best from Hamburg to the whole world and look forward to reading you again in 2020! Get in touch if you have any questions!
